The Freeway Traffic Jam Ride

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Artist depiction of the Freeway Ride

The Freeway Traffic Jam Ride (AKA The If You Rode a Bike You'd Be Home By Now Ride; AKA Crimanimal Mass # 3) is a ride in the Los Angeles Metro Area and Santa Monica area that took place on interstate highways I-10 and the I-405. It was conceived on Wednesday, April 4th, 2008, by Alejandro Cantarero and Morgan Strauss. It is a form of Bicycle Street Theatre. The inaugural ride took place on April 18, 2008. It is a mobile semi-regular ride.

1 The Beginning
2 Ride History
3 The Aftermath

The Beginning

Alejandro Cantarero and Morgan Strauss were discussing various yet to be performed ride stunts in Los Angeles over a couple burgers at In-N-Out in Culver City when the two discussed the taboo subject of bicycles on the freeway. Days later, several riders were scoping freeway on-ramps, during rush hour, in Santa Monica and documenting their findings. It soon became obvious that the best time to enter the freeway would be at 5:30PM on a Friday.

A Google group was then created to facilitate private discussions regarding this event. Approximately 20 invitations were sent out to join the group; of them only 2 attended (excluding the organizers). To recruit more Ridazz, boogalooshrimp posted the event on the Midnight Ridazz calendar on April 11, 2008 and created a thread on the site's forum. The calendar included a link to the "Evidence" video that documented the traffic on the freeway. The thread was originally named The Freeway Ride but days later was changed by the site's administrator to Crimanimal Mass #3: The Freeway Traffic Jam Ride shortly after the calendar post for the ride had been removed from the calendar.

Midnight Ridazz Controversy.

Initial Controversy

Local riders, comprising the bulk of the site's active posters and Core Elite, immediately began an ethical and legal discourse within the thread. The community quickly separated themselves into three key groups, the supporters (AKA the Sayers), the "sounds fun and stupid at the same time" folk (AKA the no-sayers) and those that opposed it, (AKA the Naysayers). These various groups and their spokes people swelled the thread's post count to over 100 within the first 24 hour period.

Yay Sayers

Notable Naysayers (Against the event or publicizing the event)

Ethical Controversy

On the Midnight Ridazz discussion thread the naysayers raised the point that publicizing this ride would increase turnout and that the increased turnout would create an increased risk. The organizers did feel that this was a valid point and did not protest the removal of the ride from the MR calendar. Email conversations between Yamyeowz and Roadblock concluded with an agreement that the thread would remain but that it would be renamed Crimanimal Mass #3: The Freeway Traffic Jam Ride. The only real upshot of this decision was that the words Freeway and Ride no longer appeared in the message thread side bar on the Midnight Ridazz website.

Legal Controversy

A discussion of the ride's legalities arose. Many sayers believed that loopholes could be found and that the CVC could be used to find such loopholes. The CVC states that only on stretches of freeway where signs prohibiting bicycles and pedestrians exist would such a ride actually be illegal. The ride organizers claimed that these signs were on every on-ramp in the city. The organizers insisted that this ride was never intended to be legal by any stretch of the word.

Cultural Controversy

Some cyclists believed that this ride would be the ride that destroyed the Los Angeles bike scene. Others believed that it was a next step in bicycle advocacy and activism. Many of the riders involved are car-free and used this ride as a statement against car and oil dependency as well as against car infrastructure in general.

Ride History

The Freeway Traffic Jam Ride #1 Spokecard

The 1st Ride

The ride was initially intended to go from point A (Cloverfield on-ramp to the 10 East) to point B (Centinela off-ramp to Pico Blvd.) and from there disperse along a predetermined escape route through the neighborhoods along the West Los Angeles/Santa Monica border.

After the A to B success, the riders maintained their energy and good cheer through a quick impromptu discussion which cultivated a second leg ad-on. The riders then traveled to point C (Bundy on-ramp to the 10 East). This part of the ride had not been scouted during the preceding days of the event. None of the riders knew what to expect from the un-ridden 405 N. Interchange ramp. The ramp climbs about 100 feet high at its apex and descends gently onto the Northbound 405 freeway. As the riders approached the ramp it was clear that the gridlocked freeway traffic to which they had grown accustomed had disappeared lay dormant. Many riders claimed that this chilling appearance only added to the adrenaline rush and gave energy to their already fatiguing thighs. The riders pushed on and safely entered the Northbound 405 traffic which was moving along at a snail's pace. Exiting at Santa Monica Blvd. (point B,) a utility vehicle impersonated a law enforcement agent and requested that the riders exit over the public address of his vehicle. The riders laughed about this as they regrouped at the corner of Sepulveda Blvd. and Santa Monica Blvd.

No rider was injured or arrested.

Watch the YouTube Video

The Freeway Ride - On Bicycles
The original video recorded and edited by RichToTheIE
The Freeway Ride - On Bicycles - FUNDERSTORM
This version includes an original song by FUNDERSTORM created for the video.

The Freeway Traffic Jam Ride #2 Spokecard

The 2nd Ride

The second freeway ride was planned almost immediately after the success of the first ride. Cantarero and Strauss along with RichToTheIE settled on a date of Friday, May 9th in the 2008th year of common era and decided to do a similar route as before. As before, Friday was chosen because they found that eastbound traffic on the I-10 was at its heaviest. Upcycle, a member of YouTube suggested that next time the Crimanimalz should drop a banner on the freeway overpass. The banner drop became a central part of their pre-ride planning.

This time, the ride wasn't publicized on a public forum like Midnight Ridazz or LAFixed. Instead, Cantarero sent out a Facebook event to 40 members on his network. Many Facebook members in turn, sent the invitation out to their friends. The Facebook innovation was linked to on a blog Mickipedia which caused Cantarero to immediately set the event to private for fear that law enforcement would find out.

After 24 hours of the second video being uploaded to Youtube, the views had reached 6,762. That's about 281 views per hour.

The Banner Drop

A 20'x6' foot banner reading "RIDE A BIKE, YOU'D BE HOME BY NOW" was painted by Cantarero and Strauss (See video). It was outfitted with carabiners at the top, to attach to the top of the fence on the freeway overpass. The bottom of the banner was weighted down with a padlock on opposite ends through the grommets. At 4:30pm in Santa Monica, an hour before the ride, four Crimanimalz assembled at the corner of 17th and Olympic to prepare the banner for flight. The sign was clipped to the top of the fence on the west side of the 17th Street overpass (above I-10) at 4:45pm so that eastbound traffic could read. Despite windy conditions the padlocks at the on the bottom corners proved ample weight and the sign rested snugly against the fence.

The original plan was to have riders board about one mile west of the sign at Lincoln Blvd. so that they could ride under it while motorists could connect the message on the sign to the riders on the freeway. Unfortunately, traffic was moving too fast to board on Lincoln and agreed that the spirit of the sign would endure as motorists who had passed the sign, would still encounter bicyclists and traffic and associate the two.

Meeting Point

Bergamot Station was picked as a location to meet before the ride for several reasons. It is a central location in Santa Monica, and near the I-10 Freeway on-ramp at Cloverfield Blvd. Also, there is very little pedestrian and vehicular traffic since Michigan Ave. dead ends into the Bergamot Station parking lot. This open space allowed for a large number of cyclists (and a few in-line skaters) to gather without creating suspicion or attention.

YouTube Video

The 3rd Ride(s)

The 3rd ride took place on June 20th. It consisted of two groups, one in West LA, and the other in the Silverlake/Downtown are, both riding during rush hour. The West LA group met at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica at 5:00pm and left at 5:30pm. The eastern ride met at the Hollywood & Western Metro station at 6:00pm and left at 6:30pm.

The eastern contingent rode from Hollywood to Silver Lake, passing several 101 freeway onramps but not getting on the freeway because of traffic moving too fast. At the Silver Lake entrance traffic was almost at a stand still and the riders determined it would be safe to attempt the ride from this location. About 30 cyclists entered the freeway and continued south into downtown when they merged onto the 110 South and exited at 3rd Street.

The western contingent entered the 405 heading South at the Wilshire Eastbound entrance. From there riders were given the option to bail at off ramps at Santa Monica Blvd., the Olympic/Pico offramp, continuing South on the 405 to exits at Venice Blvd and South, or braving the 10 interchanges to head either West or East on the 10 Freeway.

The Aftermath

Media Coverage:

Radio

The triumvirate of organizers and the filmmaker were interviewed by the Bryant Park Project on NPR at their Culver City "Bureau."
Alex Thompson was featured briefly on KFI.

Print

Santa Monica Daily Press Weekend Edition, May 10-11, 2008

Official Blog:

Banned Bicycles

Blog Coverage:

Notable forums which have discussed the ride:

CHP forums

Photos & Video

Copy Cat Rides

FREEWAY FRIDAY
This version is a rambunctious rebellious one. Not endorsed by CRIMANIMALZ